The Village of Holland will celebrate the holidays with a tree lighting at 6 p.m., Thursday, December 5, at Strawberry Acres Park, 950 South McCord Road.
The Springfield High School band and choir will perform, after which the tree will be lit. Santa and Mrs. Claus will arrive immediately following the tree lighting aboard a Springfield Township fire truck.
Santa will visit with children inside the lodge where cookies and hot chocolate will be served.
There also will be children’s activities and complimentary photos of children with Santa, courtesy of Scott Stigall, State Farm Insurance.
New this year will be a 24-foot pre-lit artificial Christmas tree set up outdoors between the park gazebo and lodge.
The village purchased the tree after two live trees died. Those pines were planted to replace the tree at the island on Angola, McCord and Clark streets, which was deemed unsafe to use because of its proximity to electrical lines.
Walker Funeral Home donated the first tree, and Hoen Orchard donated a second one after the first died, but it, too, failed to thrive and was removed several months ago.
Parking for the tree lighting is available at the lodge, along Clarion Avenue, at the community building on Clarion and the playground parking lot.
